Anna has only two more days before she boards her flight to Ukraine. So how is she occupying her time between now and then?

To start with, she is training another gal to handle her accounting duties for the team in Kathmandu. Yesterday she continued the training and then went home to day 2 of the gingerbread village…baking the dough.

Today she is actually skipping her tabla class (percussion instrument) to handle details in the office that can’t really be done while she’s training someone else. She will make a great mother — taking a great deal longer to do simple tasks so that the newbie will feel confident that she is able to perform the work even without Anna.

This afternoon she has scheduled a teeth cleaning — so she will have a bright sparkling smile for the wedding. Thoughtful, thoughtful. Her evening will be filled with decorating a gingerbread village. (Anna, what’s the story behind the village? Who’s it for?)

Meanwhile, on this front, we have spent the morning going over details of the wedding — making sure that we have all of our bases covered. The challenge in Ukraine is that it is so abnormal to plan ahead that business establishments don’t even have January calendars! We have booked a reception location, and on Sunday we ordered the menu. Jim purchased the champagne last night (on our balcony currently) as well as the soft drinks. Wine and water will be purchased sometime the week of the wedding — or earlier if we can find a ride to the store. Back breaking if he needed to carry the cases!

We have our hairdresser here at the moment — giving us all trims so that in 2 weeks our hair will be just the right length. I don’t know why, but it seems that 2 or 3 weeks AFTER a cut is when I most like my hair. Strange, eh? Jeanne has still not come up with a “do” for her wedding, so she’s just getting a trim so that her hair will be in great shape for whatever decision she makes.

Jim is flying out tonight and will return on Saturday morning. An adoptive couple has decided to try to adopt two children while they’re here — Jim has already checked out the first child, and they again want his services to examine this second child. Apparently he has some challenges that really need to be assessed by hands-on examination.

Life is certainly not slowing down as we enter into Ukraine’s big holiday season. New Year’s is THE holiday here — gift-exchanging, all night parties with lots of food, traditional movies, sparklers and fireworks. Days off, closed offices and businesses. Orthodox Christmas. And then OLD New Year’s.